A scalar format variable is a convenience feature that may be used when all
named fragment files have the same format. In this case the single value is
assumed to apply to all fragments that have a file representation, i.e. those
fragments that correspond to non-missing values in the file variable. If the
file variable contains only missing values, then the format variable is not
used, and so may take an arbitrary value.
I propose extending this to the address variable. I.e. if all of the file addresses are the same then they can be collapsed to a scalar. In the above example this could look like:
I think that this makes the address and format variables consistent, and in many use cases all of the netCDF (not PP!) addresses will indeed be the same.
For the file formats, we allow a scalar variable to contain a file format that applies to all files, e.g.
The text that describes this is:
I propose extending this to the
address
variable. I.e. if all of the file addresses are the same then they can be collapsed to a scalar. In the above example this could look like:I think that this makes the
address
andformat
variables consistent, and in many use cases all of the netCDF (not PP!) addresses will indeed be the same.